The dumping of used motor oil and used oil filters from internal combustion engines in modern vehicles, such as automobiles, airplanes, trucks, etc., is a major environmental hazard in modern society. Governmental reports estimate that at least 200 million gallons of oil are dumped in our nation's environment every year. In Texas alone, experts estimate that approximately 50 million oil filters are generated each year from internal combustion engines alone and they could, if improperly handled, release more than 3 million gallons of oil into the environment each year. If these numbers are expanded nationwide, we estimate that with over 190 million cars on the road, approximately 6 oil changes per car per year would generate 1.14 billion filters on a national level, which needs to be properly disposed. As a result, 96 million gallons of used motor oil need to be properly recycled as well. Similarly, used oil filters are currently filling up our land fills. Moreover, even if used motor oil and used oil filters (which contain used motor oil) are deposited in dumps and landfills, landfills leak and used motor oil still ends up polluting our environment. It is expensive as well; the EPA says cleaning a single landfill costs $20 million to $30 million a year (See "Erodes Support for Clinton's Budget," Wall Street, Jun. 18, 1993). What is even more frustrating is that used motor oil and used oil filters are recyclable and reusable. In particular, used motor oil is recyclable and is used for industrial fuel oils and the paper and aluminum in used oil filters is recyclable and reused as well in our industrialized society. So, not only are we polluting our nation with used oil filters and used motor oil, we are polluting it unnecessarily.
Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency recognizes this problem, which is why they prohibited disposing used internal combustion engine oil filters in landfills, unless, inter alia, these filters have been processed to remove all free waste oil. (See, Environmental Regulations, 16 Tex. Reg. 6566 .sctn. 325.137 Prohibited Wastes).
Part of the problem is that there are not any simple ways to remove used motor oil from used oil filters and collect the used oil and used oil filters for proper disposal and/or recycling on a small or large-scale basis.